Stranger than Fiction, Larger Than Life: the Finn Brothers song-by-song discussion thread

Second fan club release is Live TV 2, which was a DVD release compiled from TV appearances made by Crowded House. Tracklist:

1. When You Come (Melbourne, August, 1988)
2. Mansion in the Slums (Melbourne, Feb. 1989)
3. Sister Madly (Melbourne, Feb. 1989)
4. Sunny Afternoon (Melbourne, Feb. 1989)
5. Italian Plastic (Melbourne, Feb. 1989)
6. This Is Massive (Melvourne, Feb. 1989)
7. When You Come (Sydney, Nov. 24th, 1990)
8. Show a Little Mercy (Sydney, Nov. 24th, 1990)
9. It's Only Natural (Sydney, March 6th, 1992)
10. Locked Out (New York City, January 31st, 1994)
11. Nails in My feet (Melbourne, February 1994)
12. Weather with You (Sydney, Spril 14th, 1993)
13. Leaps And Bounds (Sydney, Sept. 22nd, 1997

 

This tracklist is incomplete. The DVD is 120 minutes long and this is the complete tracklist:

1. When You Come (Hey Hey It’s Saturday, Melbourne Aug. 1988)
2. Mansion in the Slums (The Factory, Melbourne Feb. 1989)
3. Sister Madly (Hey Hey It’s Saturday, Melbourne Feb. 1989)
4. Sunny Afternoon (The Factory, Melbourne Feb. 1989)
5. Italian Plastic (The Factory, Melbourne Feb. 1989)
6. This Is Massive (The Factory, Melbourne Feb. 1989)
7. How’m I Gonna Sleep (Hey Hey It’s Saturday, Melbourne 1989)
8. Irish Heartbeat (Newsworld, Sydney 1989)
9. Parihaka (Melbourne Jan. 1 1990)
10. Chocolate Cake (Melbourne Jan. 1 1990)
11. When You Come (Ausmusic Concert, Sydney Nov. 24 1990)
12. Show a Little Mercy (Ausmusic Concert, Sydney Nov. 24 1990)
13. It’s Only Natural (ARIA Awards, Sydney Mar. 6 1992)
14. Locked Out (Letterman, New York Jan. 31 1994)
15. Nails in My Feet (Take 40 TV, Melbourne Feb. 1994)
16. Weather With You (ARIA Awards, Sydney Apr. 1994)
17. Many’s the Time (Denton, Sydney Apr. 1994)
18. All I Ask (Later With Jules, London 1993)
19. Persuasion (Later With Jules, London 1993)
20. Paul Hester Interview (Denton, Sydney May 3 1993)
21. Finn Brothers Interview (Denton, Sydney Nov 2 1995)
22. Suffer Never (Denton, Sydney Nov 2 1995)
23. Ballroom Blitz (Denton, Sydney Nov 2 1995)
24. Neil Finn Interview (Access All Areas, Melbourne Feb 1997)
25. Truth (Access All Areas, Melbourne Feb 1997)
26. Neil Finn Interview (Words, Melbourne 2001)
27. Leaps and Bounds (ARIA Awards, Sydney Sept 22 1997)
28. Better Be Home Soon (ARIA Awards, Sydney Oct. 23 2005)
29. Tim Finn Interview (Sunrise, Melbourne Feb. 2 2006)

 

Ah!! I think what it is is I got it from Paul’s Crowded House discography….so he only included the Crowded House somgs there… He included the others on their respective discographies. But I didn’t realize that this morning thank you

 

Very kind of you @Lance LaSalle but I can't take any credit for the, um, credits: they're listed on the disc cover! I have, however, studiously separated them out for my own listening pleasure. This disc is very entertaining for what it is but, for me, I rarely bother listening to banter unless it really is captivating in some way.

Forget Who You Are kind of encapsulates the genius of Neil Finn and Crowded House: its an improvised throwaway. And it is remarkably beautiful. It has a real sense of melancholy and deserved being worked into something more substantial.

Several years ago Peter Green had the occasional habit of acquiring some "radio CDs from a music fair". My OCD compelled me to buy them and I was always rather surprised to discover that they sounded very much like the fan club CDs. That is, low audience levels, incomplete shows (I'd have expected radio CDs to sound more like live broadcasts). Of course, I may have misunderstood the term "radio CDs": they could reasonably have been CDs derived from the band's DAT recordings that were serviced to radio stations, but it seemed odd that the fan club would have to source them from music fairs.

Anyhow, relatively recently I found some time to give them a more serious listen. One thing that intrigued me: several of the shows featured tracks that had been issued on other fan club CDs, suggesting that they had, in fact, been auditioned and curated by the label or someone associated with the band and had, in part, been plundered for material.

I mention this because it was a wonderful surprise to discover that Forget Who You Are was actually excised from the middle of a performance of Sister Madly. Who'd have thought...

 

Spooky Vibrations

I can’t rate this CD because it would be like rating a completely ab lib comedy album. Much of the banter is on the bawdy side, and mostly pretty funny. Whether it stands up to repeated listenings is debatable.

There’s a bit of audience singing, but it’s off key! Tim even shows up as a disembodied voice speaking from the mixing desk.

Preparations is a very pretty song, as is Forget Who You Are.

I struggle to come up with more to say about this CD. All the great spontaneous things about a live CH show are here, but without the musical performances, it’s like eating too much ice cream or something. I’m glad the CD exists though.


Live TV 2

This is a terrific compilation, but it spans such a long period of time (18 years) and includes so many incarnations of Finn acts (CH, Tim solo, Neil solo, Finn Brothers), that there’s no unifying theme to discuss. There’s nothing on here that isn’t worth seeing, and my favorite parts are the Finn Brothers clips from the mid-90’s (not a surprise to anyone who has been following what I’ve said in the discussion of the various fan club CDs). This one, however, definitely stands up to repeated viewing, although I sadly will not be able to rewatch this before Saturday morning. If I get some time on Saturday, I may be able to expand on my thoughts a bit, but I doubt I can do much more than list favorites, because there is no context to put this DVD into. Having said that, I do think it’s awesome, and will give it a top score for its thoroughness alone. I bet a lot of these individual clips could be found on YouTube. I don’t know that for a fact, but there’s all kinds of stuff on YouTube in 2022. My ability to watch these fan club DVDs is likely drawing to a close anyway, with DVD players (especially multi-region players that can play PAL and NTSC) fast becoming historical artifacts. I had two. One died last week. When the other goes, I doubt it will be something I can replace.

5/5

 

You can play dvds on most laptops/computers…if they have drives for them. And then it’s pretty easy to hook your computer up to a tv if yoh want a bigger screen. But, yeah…i find the fact that media goes obsolete weirdly sad for some reason.

 

You can only change DVD regions on Macs a couple of times before you get locked out of changing again. That’s why I bought standalone players.

 

Ah.

 

Spooky Vibrations

Crowded House's stage banter during Paul's time with the band was really something unique. I love that the banter always seemed to be so spontaneous and in the moment, never to be repeated. That along with the band changing set lists from gig to gig, sometimes making up songs on the spot, throwing in unexpected covers every now and then, gave the gigs that great "anything can and will probably happen" feeling. It therefore feels appropriate that the fan club put together the Spooky Vibrations CD and I like the humour of the band/Peter Green listening through the huge collection of DAT tapes to find the best stage banters, selecting a sequence for them on the fan club CD and pick cover artwork and then inform the fan club members "you can now buy a CD featuring mainly stage banter". And that fan club members totally got the sense of humour and probably immediately placed their orders.
I think this CD shows a lot of Paul's irreplacable personality and his talent for storytelling that was equal parts absurdity, humour and sense of timing. The selections used on this CD sound like they just happened organically and naturally. On some of the live recordings I've heard from the '94 US tour, some of the banter sounds very forced, as if Paul felt the pressure to be funny even though he may not have been in the mood for it that night and I find that very hard to listen to. But on Spooky Vibrations it really sounds like both he and the band and the audiences were enjoying those moments.

Speaking of Paul's stage banter, my favourite is the one that must be on another fan club CD or perhaps on a bonus track on a CD single. He starts talking about bands he had been previously and how he got sacked from each of them but that he didn't mind "because it gave me more time to concentrate on my writing", repeated for several bands before ending that a movie character "was loosely based on me". I don't recall now where this stage banter appears, does anyone know?

Of the musical content, I really like the brief acoustic version of "Skin Feeling" and the excellent version of "Recurring Dream".

I can't rate this fan club CD, for the same reason that @brownie61 mentioned above.

 

I'm happy to give Spooky Vibrations 4.8/5. It's easily the fan club CD I listen to most. As is @Paul H 's wont, I split this CD up into individual tracks. I can listen to the various bits and pieces and skip the creepier ones, and I can go directly to one of my favorite performances of "Recurring Dream" any time I want. The banter never grows old (even if it does grow "odd"), and the somewhat lost song, "Worms", is just strange enough to fit right in with the rest of the CD. I listened to a lot of comedy albums in the late 60s and 70s (Newhart, Carlin, Pryor, and more), so I don't mind hearing the same jokes over and over, Paul, Neil, Nick, and even Mark have good timing and good delivery. I only knocked it down a point for "Four Susans In One Day" and another point for Paul's perviness. At least he's an equal opportunity perv.

 

I don't feel right rating Spooky Vibrations, either, but what the hell. I give it a 3. I like the comedy and I'm glad it was preserved, but more music would have been nice. The opening song/improv is pretty cool and the version of "Recurring Dream" is indeed tops.

I haven't seen the DVD.

 

Our votes for Spooky Vibrations
1-0
2-0
3-1
4-0
5-1
Average: 3.9

Our votes for Live TV 2
5-1
Average: 5

 

This week, Sleeper, by Nigel Griggs.

Sleeper was self-released through the fan club in 2001, or 2002 I believe. A very limited run of maybe 50 or 100 copies? Rereleased later iwth a similarly small run. It is Nigel Grigg's only solo album and is the only music that he's released outside of Split Enz that I know of since Octopus' 1971 album!! But this is very different music indeed.

The tracklist:

1. Imagineation
2. Close Encounter
3. Love
4. Serendipity
5. Paleface
6. Kids In Space
7. I know Who You Are
8. Aliens Discover Lost Tribe
9. Experience
10. Winter Wonder
11. Night Train
12. Crumpets & Honey
13. Earth
14. Not Quite White
15. Flux
16. Somewhere Else
17. Majestique
18. Ugly
19. Childsplay
20. Days Get Shorter
21. Slow Poison
22. Serenity Now

Coming up:

by the way, I think Stefan mentioned it before, but in September Eddie Rayner released a self-titled album with his new band Another Life, which is comprised of Eddie Rayner, Andrew McLennan and Pat Kuhtze. I've added it to the list. I got it on iTunes, so there's a good chance it streams on YouTube etc...

1. Live In America 1998 Neil Finn
   Encore! 1998 Neil Finn
2. Nada Sonata -Mark Hart
3. Live in the UK 2001 Neil Finn
   One ON One 2001 Neil Finn
4. Play It STraight -- Eddie Rayner 2002
5. 9.30 Club Washington July 18th 2002 Neil Finn
6. I LIke It Rare 2 (VA) 2003
7. I LIke It Rare 3 Paul Hester 2005
8. She Will Have Her Way 2005
9. Novelty Act - Phil Judd 2006
10. I like It Rare 4
11. Love Is A ***** -- Phil Judd 2009
12. Unthinkables -- kind of an art dance studio duo featuring Phil Judd
13. Chaos And Triviality 2010 -- "Supergroup"of Eddie Rayner, Michael Barker and Brian Ritchie(of Violent Femmes) sort of jazz/rock spontaneous jams
14. Still Hot! The Conrays (Eddie Rayner cover band)
15. He Will Have His Way (tribute album)
16. Play It STrange - Phil Judd 2014
17. Sediment - Eddie Rayner 2014
18. Enzso Stranger Than Fiction -- live 2014
19. The Backroom - Mark Hart
20. UniQue -- Phil Judd 2016
21. Alluvium -- Eddie Rayner 2016
22. Flightless Bird - Phil Judd
23. Planet Sublime Phil Judd
24. True Colours tribute album
25. Another Life -- Another Life (Eddie Rayner band)

 

It might be the re-release of Nigel Griggs's Sleeper that I have, but who knows ... at any rate I'm glad that Lance included this in the thread, I'm reminded to listen to it again.

I can't go through these song-by-song, because there aren't really any songs there. What there is are really nicely done rhythm and musical bed tracks with some accents added here and there (catchy hooks, voices, seemingly random musical notes, etc.) Most of it is something to get your backside moving, some of it is very pretty. The music creates a nice mood, and it's very well recorded. I listen to it start to finish, and while I can't say it takes me on a journey, it does put me in a very relaxed mood. It's apparent that he spent some time getting the sequencing just right. It's too bad Nigel doesn't have a musical or lyrical collaborator because he has a great sense for music and rhythms. There's the foundation of a really enjoyable album here, but as it is it's a more than a bit unfinished.

The worst thing I can say about it is that it's great music to clean house by. The best thing I can say is I don't get much cleaning done because I can't leave the room to put things away, I'm compelled to stop and listen to what he's doing and I don't want to miss anything. 3.5/5

 

Yeah, Sleeper is a very interesting creation. Not much in the way of actual songs per se, but not quite obscure enough to be considered a super experimental album. It is quite experimental and all, but there's enough of a structure to these songs that they end up sounding (mostly) quite cohesive. I won't do a track-by-track on this one either (no thank you to doing a 22 track song-by-song), but I will highlight the tracks I ended up throwing on my mp3 player to re-listen to.

I Know Who You Are
Kind of a cool, techno-industrial thing going on here. I think I like it because it reminds me of some of the neater U2 tracks from Pop like "Mofo" and "Discotheque". In fact, listening to "Mofo" now, yeah, it's very similar to this. Cool piece of music.

Experience
This sounds like video game music from the 90's, especially in the way it's short and seems to be able to loop itself if one chose to do that. It's got Bit of a circus-y vibe with the backwards sounds and main keyboard rhythm. Probably could get annoying if listened to a bunch of times, but I like it.

Serendipity
The part that starts at :47 seconds in is one of the best little melodies Nigel ever came up with. Fun, bouncy, simple; it's a good one. Better than even a lot of Eddie's melodies. I wish all the spoken word nonsense didn't exist to throw me off as I try to enjoy the music, but whatever. Wonderfully good backing track anyway.

Ugly
Great vibe here, though it may be lacking a bit on musical engagement. Kind of sounds like movie music.


The album is really a hit-and-miss affair overall, but it's a cool insight into Nigel's obscure creations. Would I have liked to have heard more structured stuff like he gave us with "Adz"? Of course, but a lot of the material here is strong in its own right, and it's great to hear creativity from Nigel. Truly a creative bunch of guys, the Split Enz lineup was, with almost all of them going on to create original music post-Enz.

3/5

 

Sleeper
This is kind of a tough album to rate. Like others, I won't be going through all 22 tracks.
I listened to it in 2 installments and I have to say that I actually really like it. Count me surprised. Not because I underrate Nigel's musicanship - I loved his contributions to the Enz and very much enjoyed being introduced to Octopus - it's just not quite what I expected. There's some fascinating little dance numbers on this album and also what I would probably categorize as ambient music. In fact big parts of the album seem like they would be suitable for a movie soundtrack while other pieces really could have been used as a good jumping off point for some great dance tracks.

It's a pretty diverse album - and it's almost a stream of consciousness in musical form - I actually like that idea. Although that same stream sensibility means there isn't really a single song that I can hang my listening on. Mostly I'm glad to hear it but sad that Nigel hasn't more actively collaborated with lyricists or singers to really give full bloom to some of these tracks. I mean there's all sorts of good music here and it's just crying out for a bit more development to make them into songs I can actually sing along to.

3.5

 

I really like Sleeper. It deepens for me the mystery that is Nigel Griggs: he does a fairly conventional psychedelic pop/rock album at the dawn of the seventies, co-writes a few Split Enz tunes ("Dirty Creature"! -- he wrote the chorus of that!) and writes one very cool art-pop song with Split Enz and then disappears for 17 or 18 years and then comes up with this?

It's fascinating. What does that guy do? Does he work? Is he independently wealthy? I feel like I know more about Noël Crombie than Nigel Griggs.

Quite a bit of this sounds like really cool avant-garde dance-pop that would have been really cutting edge -- in 1984. And I suspect some of it dates back to that time.

. But there are other snippets of music here that sound like they are pop choruses looking for a verse...if Split Enz had continued (if only!) I could see Neil or Tim doing more co-writes with Nigel.

Anyway, it is somewhat surprising to me but I actually like this more than almost any other "Other Enz" record we've discussed up to now. Maybe I'd rate Private Lives by Phil Judd higher and that's about it. A very cool record that I think should be tedious but actually never gets tedious and really holds my attention and interest, which is all the more surprising since this is not the kind of music I'd normally get into more than a song or two at all.

4.2/5

 

Sleeper was recorded on an 8-track cassette Portastudio. It’s been years since I heard it but I remember being impressed on first listen.

 

I agree that Nigel is the Enz "man of mystery". He's clearly got good musical instincts and all the stuff I've listened to Octopus to Sleepers is really interesting stuff. And he was able to collaborate well with Neil and Tim (at least on Dirty Creature) but you can hear his mark on everything from Dizrythmia forward.

I sure would like him to release more music or collaborate with Tim or Neil again.

 

While I have no insider information regarding how Nigel has spent his time after his time with Split Enz and Schnell Fenster, some facts have been mentioned (by the fan club etc). In one of the fan club newsletters from circa 1992/93, it did say that Nigel was very busy working as manager for several bands (the fan club didn't mention any band names though, just that he was very busy with this "so if you are in a band and are looking for management... don't contact Nigel"). Maybe he continued to work behind the scenes in the music industry. I know he has also done some session musician work.
In terms of songwriting credits in Split Enz, as mentioned he co-wrote "Dirty Creature" which was a single and a major hit in Australia and New Zealand (and maybe Canada too?). Also, "Six Months in a Leaky Boat" was credited to the whole band (Tim Finn/Split Enz, to be specific, probably implying that it is mainly Tim's song but that the other four also contributed parts and have shares in the royalties). I imagine both "Dirty Creature" and "Six Months in a Leaky Boat" still get a fair amount of radio airplay on classic hits type of radio stations in Australia (and New Zealand) so Nigel will get royalties from that, plus royalties from streaming, cover versions, live versions, compilation albums, soundtracks which feature these tracks and so on. He was also credited as co-writer of "Edible Flowers" which was released as a single in Europe and probably received quite a bit of airplay. Plus True Colours, Corroboree and Time and Tide all went to #1 in Australia and New Zealand, charted well in Canada, sold in not insignificant numbers in the States and in Europe, there have been several Split Enz "best of" albums that have sold very well in Australia, the 40th anniversary re-issue of True Colours went to #1 in New Zealand and there have been numerous Split Enz reunion tours in Australia and New Zealand when they played huge arenas and presumably sold lots of tour merchandise. Maybe Nigel invested his royalty earnings wisely (I have no idea what he did and it isn't really my business anyway).
In addition, he wrote the majority of the songs for Octopus and they too have had songs on compilation albums and maybe some of their songs still get regular airplay on classic psychedelia type of radio stations around the world.
Of course he may also have had a regular nine-to-five job after his time with Split Enz and Schnell Fenster, I am sure he has done a lot of useful things in the past 30+ years.

 

Sleeper

This album was a real surprise when the fan club released it in 2002. As I really like the Octopus album as well as Nigel's song "Adz" plus his overall contributions to Split Enz and Schnell Fenster, I immediately bought Sleeper and probably expected it to be in a similar style, with Nigel singing. Obviously it is something entirely different, mainly instrumental music and very much based on synths and keyboards with some seemingly random dialogue thrown in here and there. At first I was rather put off by that, but something about the record intrigued me so I kept returning to it. I think it could work very well as soundtrack to a well-done off-kilter indie movie. The more I've listened to it, the more fascinating I find the album. It has a mysterious but appealing atmosphere that keeps building from track to track and the sum is something much more than the sum of its parts. "Kids in Space" is the stand-out track for me, but the whole album is definitely worth hearing.
4/5

 

Yes it was remiss not to mention Nigel's contributions to Schnell Fenster. A big part of the funkiness of those albums has to do with Nigel's bass lines...

 

If you sift through the multitude of credits with Split Enz, there are plenty of scattered credits for Nigel on his Discogs page.

Has anyone picked up this recent release? Split Enz - Alive In America (Split Enz Alive In America on ImportCDs )

 

Nigel Griggs was also credited on "Giant Heartbeat" and "Lost for Words" if I'm not mistaken.

 

It's a bootleg I think. Legal in Europe because it was a radio broadcast. Live In Denver on Halloween , I believe.

I found a digital copy somewhere for free, so didn't want to pay the bootleggers. It has good sound and features good peformances. No real banter I remember, about typical for a Split Enz show that I've heard from those days. It ends with a cover of "Twist and Shout" and "Message Boy", which would have been a real obscurity. Overall it's not special, but it's not an audience recording.